Music Room / Sitting Room Before and After

Better late than never!

 I have been planning on doing a post on my music room redo since I finished it early last spring, but life had other plans. So here is my before photo.

Before..

When we moved in, our old furniture went into this front room of our house. We didn't spend much time in here. The train table spent about a year in here, yet again no one ever played with that much either. It seemed like a room the kids would drag stuff to leave it on the ground and that was about it aside from the occasional Wii game. I decided I wanted a grown up space, so the Wii room moved to a spare bedroom upstairs and the old Salvation Army couch I bought for my college dorm room traveled to the unfinished basement.

Before:

The other wall was were we had our upright piano. I wanted to keep this there on this level since my daughter takes lessons.

Before:

We have had other furniture arrangements in this room using our old stuff. It was ok but I had never actually had the chance to decorate a room the way I wanted it without having to compromise with my husband's taste, which consists of over sized leather furniture placed on outside walls in order to use up the least amount of floor space and geometric shapes and very neutral colors.

I was excited to have the green light to make it what I wanted it to be.

Yet I still had to make the feel of the room fit with the rest of our home and I would have to not go totally crazy. My husband still has to look at it everyday, and it has to be neutral enough to last years, and not get outdated too easily. 

 After:

We painted the room a darker warmer color. With a blue gray accent color on the fireplace. We think it makes the natural architecture of the corner pop.

After:

The most controversial piece of furniture in the room was the Coffee Table, I LOVE it, and my husband really does not. I love the industrial look of the wheels, he cannot stand it. But being the good husband he is he let me have it. We use it to play boardgames and for a place to work on puzzles instead of using the dinning room table. This way we don't have to worry about picking the games up when it is time for dinner. The little dark leather cubes we had before and they work perfect for place to sit when playing.

 

The chairs we got online at Target. On sale of course and we have been super happy with them. They were much better quality than we expected them to be and were a great price.

The couch was a very difficult piece to choose. I really liked the look of the one I choose from Slumberland but it was a fold out sleeper, which we didn't need, or need to pay for. Lucky for us there was a returned one which had a spot on it. The tiny spot came off with water and a damp cloth, I can't believe someone didn't just wipe it off. But because the spot was there they had it marked WAY down from the floor cost which made it OK for it to be a fold out price wise even if we didn't need it to be. 

I also like the dark leather storage bench that we had that matched the two small cube seats we have by our coffee table. This adds additional seating to the room fills an empty wall and serves as storage for puzzles, games and other small toys the kids may bring to this room.

 

And here the piano wall is not much different, except I moved the lamp and TV tray out and now there is room for my guitar and case to be stored next to the piano. As you can see my old window is currently empty. It was the main reason for not writing this post for a year. I have decided I do enjoy it empty too, but if you want you can pretend the other photos that were in there are still there.

The artwork on the wall was also a piece we already owned. It was bought on clearance at JCP a few years ago. It works well with the space but if I had my choice of anything for the space I wish I could find THIS piece of artwork. I came across the photo on Pinterest months after I finished my room and saw many similarities in the color scheme and coffee table. I have not been able to locate the artwork,  and if I could, I probably wouldn't pay what they wanted for it. So it may just be a future DIY project of mine although I don't think I will like what I make as much as the original.

Now I have my space. I can curl up and read a book, watch cars drive by outside, or snowflakes fall. It is a great comfy place for songwriting with my band mates, and playing games with the family. The room makes me feel calm, which I LOVE. I don't always get to feel calm in the midst of three children.